Author: Paul J. Meyer
A philosophy of living is a list of reasons that determine why you do what you do. Your personal philosophy clarifies your underlying values and the basic principles on which you “conduct the business” of your every day life. I’ve noticed that all truly successful people have identified their individual philosophy of living and use it to guide every decision and plan they execute.

Five-Point Philosophy of Living
At the basis of my own philosophy for living is my relationship with Jesus Christ and my dependence on God. From that basis I have defined all my other plans and aspirations.
In addition, at the core of my being, I am a goal-setter. Almost everything I do is formulated from a “goal-setting mentality.” I learned early in life that without strong, clear goals I would easily wander off track.

Since we are all individuals and our philosophies can vary a great deal, let me spur you on by sharing my own five point philosophy of life:

Point 1 - A positive attitude: I know a lot of people feel they’ve arrived once they join the “glass is half full” club, but I have expanded that concept to my own “the glass is full all the time” club. In fact, I am always seeking ways to make it overflow!

Someone once told me that everything we accomplish is 12% education and 87% attitude and ability to communicate. That’s why I have cultivated a positive attitude about everything. I refuse to entertain any negative thoughts. I get up every day affirming that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

Point 2 - No worry: I discovered that worrying about things never did me any good, and in fact, it actually diluted my abilities and strength. Now I simply refuse to worry. I give any concerns I have to God and go about my business. I know He is well able to attend to all my needs.

Point 3 Peace and contentment: While I know that some days will definitely be better than others, I’ve made a decision to be happy each and every day. I view each day as new and full of promise. Learning to be contented and at peace no matter your situation is a great gift that God offers each one of us.

Point 4 Strength and Power to achieve: I believe that my potential to achieve is unlimited and backed by the power of Christ. I envision myself a risk-taker; someone who is bold and courageous, open to new opportunities.

Point 5 Stewardship: Everything already belongs to God, but because He loves me, He allows me to use some of his riches. I know that everything I have or achieve is because of His supply and generosity. Even the joy I am able to experience when I give to others is a gift directly from God.

Forming your own philosophy of living

You may think you already have a good idea of your philosophy of living, but I challenge you to take the time to actually write it down. Writing something down requires you to completely crystallize your thoughts and provides yourself with a very powerful motivation for action.

Once you have written a rough draft, continue to hone your words until you have a very concise list of points that guide your life. When you have it completed, make a copy and place it in a very accessible spot so you can refer to it often. Over time you will absorb your philosophy of living and it will become the “knee jerk” basis for all your life decisions.

By using a personal philosophy of living, you will clarify your goals and minimize the distractions and detours of life that can throw you off course. Knowing why you do what you do greatly increases the likelihood of your success.

When you think about it, isn’t your future a lot more important than plans for your next summer vacation?

Author: ifeanyichukwu ogbuka
Philosophy Of life
…Fulfilling your destiny

You will understand what life is if you think about the act of dying. When I die, how will I be different from the way I am right now? In the first moments after death, my body will be scarcely different in physical terms than it was in the last seconds of life but I will no longer move, no longer sense, nor speak, nor feel, nor care. You will also come to understand what life is, when you struggle in life and you achieve nothing. It’s these things that are life at that moment, the psyche take flight in the last breath.

What is philosophy of life?
Philosophy of life constitutes one of the most important pillars of life studies. The task of philosophy of life is to think deeply about the question “what is life, death and destiny”.
Philosophy of life is the study of life. It is all about knowing the principles guiding life. One may ask “what is life all about”? What is the purpose of living here on earth? Probably everyman in this world always have such type of question. You may ask yourself, “Why am I reading today? Why am I hunting for a job? Why am struggling in life to reach the sky? What is the need for me to do all this things when I that one day I have to go. What will be my destiny here on earth? What will my future after death? What are the principles guiding life. These are all the questions running through ones mind. But if we know the way, is very easy to follow the path.

Philosophical inquiry into some basic concept concerning life, death and destiny
Let us remember that the ultimate aim of life studies is to help us live our limited life without regret and also to fulfill our destiny here on earth, hence, first, we have to make clear what the exact meaning of “limited life” is. We are all going to die sooner or later but what does this mean to us exactly. Surprisingly, this is an extreme hard question to answer. Sometimes we think that we are the way of a long journey. Until when life pushes us to the wall, we then know we have a limited life. I can really say that the purpose of this limited life is to be busy in something and not only been busy but also for us to make a positive impact in peoples lives. Don’t you think it necessary for you? In our happy days, we do not think much about this but in pain all philosophical things dances around us. We all have a mission to accomplish her on earth. This is related to a question, “What is my destiny here on earth?” we all have a mission here on earth. We were all created for a purpose. As we all different names with different background, our destiny is also like that. What I have come to realize here on earth is that even if we die at younger age and still fulfill our destiny here on earth we have no problem. Once we impacted positively in some ones life when alive we will have a good reward. I believe that first we have to discover our destiny before we can achieve our mission. What I have come to realize is that our weak point is our destiny. For us to discover our destiny we have to know what our weak point in life is.
Napoleon Hill once wrote in his book that we are mind with body. Because we are mind, we possess mystical powers known and unknown. If we dare to explore the powers of our mind, I believe we can achieve our destiny here on earth. If you can direct your thoughts, control your emotions you ordain our destiny.
We are all going to die sooner or later. This closely connected to another question, “what happens when I die?” but we cannot know anything certain about this question. Hence the question of life study would be like this “what is the meaning of life?” when we do know nothing about life after death. Also we have to make clear about other important questions, such as “what is life without regret?” we are going to die in the end, so why must we live? What is different between life and existence? Probably life without regret means that when I die, I can really believe that I am happy to have been born. Through out my existence on earth, I made an impact. I transformed lives positively.

What is life?
One may say “I have done good things but nobody says to me a single world of appraisal and a lot of times when I have done nothing, doing some normal things then people say I have done a good job.” What is life all about? What we are told about life are the opposite of what we see.
Life is period between some ones birth and death. This is the period of time (limited time) between birth and death. This the time we have in our whole life to do anything we want to do. This the time we all have to make a difference in our world.
We can also have a clear understanding of what life is all about, if we read about creation in the book of Genesis. We saw that God created man in His image and breathed inside man. God deposited an extension of His inside every man. Therefore life is an extension of God in us. It is the power we have to make a difference in our world.

Basic principles guiding life
For us to succeed in life, for us to live a life without regret, there are basic principles we have to follow. There are principles guiding life which when we apply them we make a difference in our world. The basic principle includes:
• Right understanding
You will understand what life is if you think about the act of dying. When I die, how will I be different from the way I am right now? In the first moments after death, my body will be scarcely different in physical terms than it was in the last seconds of life but will no longer move, no longer sense, nor speak, nor feel, nor care. It’s these things that are life at that moment. The psyche takes flight in the last breath.

Right understanding is the foundation for developing a proper sense of values, so sorely lacking in our age. Without right understanding our vision is dimmed and the way is lost; all our effort in life will be misguided and misdirected, all our plans for individual and social development must flounder and fail.

When wrong views prevail we will operate with a perverted sense of values: we will fling ourselves into blind the pursuit of wealth, power and possession: we will be obsessed by the urge to conquer and dominate which life is not all about. But having a right understanding, having a right view will point us towards an enlightened sense of values, towards detachment and kindness, towards generosity of spirit and selfless service to others; towards the pursuit of wisdom and understanding.

Having right understanding will enable us to recognize that worldly values are man-made and relative. Right livelihood and right action leads to peace and harmony in our lives.
• Life and ownership
What is the conceptual relationship between “I” and “life”? People who justify suicide may insist that “ones life” belongs to him or herself. But is this the same as saying that the person owns his/her life. One may say, since I have the extension of God in me, I have the power to life. I am the right owner of life.

The major problem hindering us from succeeding in life is the problem of life and ownership. We all say, God is the owner of life. He is the giver of life, but we still live our lives as if we are the owner of life. A right understanding of ownership of life will make us live purposefully. This will help know the purpose of living. Having a clear understanding that life is not our legal property, we will make it our first priority to uphold our moral values. We do anything we want and how we want it without recognizing the objectivity of the moral law.

We have to know that our life is not our legal property but hope to our environment. Let us try to live a life that gives hope to others.
• Simplicity of life
Simplicity is the quality of being natural and plain. It’s all about making things working in a simple way. If we have right understanding that our desires are endless, we will know that simplicity is the step to succeeding in life. Seeing that life involves incessant change and it subject to forms of suffering, one with right understanding learns to live simply and regulate desire. A wise and virtuous person is moderate in his desires and follows the middle way in ever matter. One with right understanding is aware real happiness is an inward state- a quality of the mind and should therefore be sought inwardly. Aristotle once said that “happiness is independent of external things though of course a certain degree of material security is necessary as a basis for inner development.

Now we don’t really know the different between an asset and a liability. Author of a book “Rich dad poor dad” once wrote that anything that anything that takes money from your pocket is a liability but anything that puts money into our pocket is an asset. People don’t really understand what investment is all about. We all go after things that don’t really have value. In life we require only four basic kind of physical sustenance: wholesome food, clothing, shelter and medicine. Complementary to these we have four mental needs; right knowledge, virtue, guarding the doors of senses and meditation. These are the two set of basic requisites for living a lofty life.

Understanding the close connection between craving and suffering, we will realize the importance of holding desire in check by simple living. Living simply without superfluous possessions and entanglement leads to contentment and peace of mind, releasing time and energy to pursue higher virtue and values. Life is all about simplicity.

Remember, it is pride and vanity that keep us tied to false goals and the smaller mind the greater is the mind.
• A life plan
To make the best use our human potential, we need not only a practical aim in life, but a life plan for achieving that aim. While we walk along the path of liberation, as laypeople we have we have to live in the world and our immediate objective will be to make our life in the world both a means to worldly success and a stepping-stone to final liberation.

For us to accomplish this, we must recognize our life plan with the framework of the Noble eightfold path with its emphasis on self-effort, self-control and respect for the individual. We can best realize our immediate aims by drawing up an individual life plan in keeping with our powers and circumstances. This our life plan must be realistic. It must envisage a realistic development of our innate potential, steering us towards the fullest actualization of our possibilities.

At a start, we require an honest understanding of ourselves. It is pointless to device a workable life plan on the foundation stone of grandiose delusions about our character and abilities. The more we find out about ourselves, by self observation and self –examination, the better the better be our chances of-improvement.

We should ask ourselves how far and to what degree we are generous, kind, considerate, honest, and sober in morals, truthful, diligent, energetic, industrious, cautious, patient, tolerant and tactful. We need to improve ourselves wherever we are weak. We are what we repeatedly do; excellence is not an act but a habit (Aristotle). A little practice everyday is all that is necessary. We should remember that the more often an action is performed, the easier it becomes the tendency to do it again and again until it becomes a habit, an ingrained part of our character.

What brings life failure is lack of life plan. Majority of us live our life the way we see it and the way the day present it to us. We don’t make plans on how we want to live our life. We don’t plan for our future. Our life plan should cover all the main areas of a normal householder’s life, including occupation, marriage, and the procreation and raising of children, retirement, old age and death. The happiness of lay life consists in finding out exactly what one can do and doing it well.

A clear mental picture of a practical aim in life and realistic sketch of the steps needed to achieve that aim will help guide us to the fulfillment of our idea.

We tend to become what we really want to be provided we act realistically and effectively to realize our aim.
• Life, potential and success
Aristotle stated that where your talent and the world cross, there lies your vocation. Our lives have some things deposited in it. For us to understand and a difference in our world, we have to make use of that potential deposited in us. This potential is all about using the extension of God in us to impact lives.

One secret to life is once we make impacting lives positively our first priority, that’s the time we understand what life is all about. For us to make use of the potential deposited in us, we have to understand what success is all about. Making use of our potentials does not guarantee our success. What guarantee our success is making use our potentials effectively and applying the steps to success. Success and potential are the two things that make our life different from others. It is success and potential that makes our future brighter.

There are steps we have to follow for us to succeed in life. There philosophies behind success. The philosophies include:
1. PERSISTENCE
All that it takes to succeed in life is persistence. All the things that you read or know about don’t worth a dime if you don’t make them happen. For you to make them have you have to work and persist in your work. We make plans and we don’t stick to it. Persistence is what makes our idea different from plan. Persistence is what puts our plan into reality. One may persist and not succeed. But keep in mind that the difference between those that achieved greatness and those that didn’t, whether it was money, or career, or knowledge or something else, was that they did not give up. They persisted to believe and work to their dream, because what the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve- the self motivator. Let us remember that every adversity has the seed of greater benefit.

Talent and special abilities don’t make great people. Persistence does. Success is achieved and maintained by those who keep trying.

2. Do what you love money will follow. The greatest value in life is love of people and importance of serving people.

3. The major problem in achieving our goals is procrastination. If you must achieve something, the best moment to start is right now, not tomorrow, not next week NOW! Today is the perfect day to start. Make a first step to get a little closer to your goal, even if it’s a very small one.
One step made means one step less in your long and sometimes difficult journey.

4. GOAL SETTING
Set a goal! Make it specific. You want o make money? Set a figure 3,000, 4,000 Dollars. You want to kill a Lion set a target. Whatever it is set it. Do that for everything, every decision in your life. Make clear for yourself. What is that you want?

5. The next step in making our dream reality is to develop a plan. Use a monthly, a weekly and a daily plan. It’s a well known fact that a person that doesn’t have a good plan will outrun the one that doesn’t have a plan at all. More importantly than making the plan is to respect it. The value of a plan can be measured only by the results. What value has a plan that doesn’t get to be accomplished! None. So respect your plan to make it valuable.

6. A not so good truth us humans, is that we live in the prison of our fears. It’s our fear that holds you from being brave. It’s our fear that holds you taking decisions. It’s fear that stops us from changing our lives. Learn to conquer your fear. Believe you can succeed and you will set in motion the greatest of all human power- the mind.

7. Don’t let people stop you from believing in your dream. Some people will try to show that your dream cannot be accomplished. But most don’t even know they are talking about. Many of your so called friends have conflicting interests and your goals make them feel uncomfortable. Learn to select those that want your success, listen to their suggestions and always decide for yourself.

8. MOTIVATION
We humans need a motivation to make every single move that we make. Motivation is the first step to persistence. What is that you want out of life? You have success born in you. Motivate yourself. Use the mind and the brain. Be a self motivator.

9. Take yourself serious when you have to, but don’t over do it. Laugh; make fun of yourself from time to time. You will have a better image about yourself and you will live a more beautiful and longer life.
Conclusion
To be truly happy we require a simple but sound philosophy of life. Philosophy is the keen desire to understand the nature of man and our destiny in the universe. It gives life a sense of direction and meaning. Without one we either dream our way through life or muddle through life.
A clear-cut philosophy makes life meaningful and fruitful, enabling us to live in harmony with our fellows and with the natural environment, thereby fulfilling our destiny.

Author: Scott Hughes
Almost anyone can philosophize with no formal training or experience. It simply consists of questioning and wondering about the foundational aspects of the universe and ourselves, including metaphysics, knowledge, morality, and religion. Nonetheless, if philosophy interests you, you may want to study it and learn more about it, which in turn will improve your philosophical abilities. Let me suggest some ways to study philosophy.

School - You can go to school for philosophy. That will give you a very formal education in philosophy. Additionally, you will get a degree which can help you in life. However, school usually costs a lot. If you plan to go to school, you may want to go for something more practical than philosophy. A philosophy degree will not open up as much career paths as other degrees. In addition to costing a lot, going to school can take a lot of your time. If you have a tight schedule, you may not have time to go to school.

Library - If you want to study philosophy, you can just go to the library instead of going to school. Without the cost, you can find and read books just the same, and you can get the same research done. Of course, you will not get a degree from just going to the library. But you will have the chance to read as many philosophy books as you can for practically no cost.

The Internet - Nowadays, the internet has put all the information you can get from a school or library right at your fingertips. You can use online encyclopedias, search engines, and other websites to find all sorts of free information. In fact, you may find yourself learning more at home in front of your computer than you would in a classroom. You can find biographies of major philosophers in an instant, for example.

Discussing Philosophy - Perhaps, you can best develop your knowledge of philosophy by discussing it. Unlike just reading books by philosophers, you can interact with other people when actually having discussions. So you can ask questions to other people, and your can propose your own ideas. Getting feedback on your own explanations of your own philosophical ideas will probably help you learn philosophy better than any formal education could. You can discuss philosophy in real life or on the internet.

As you can see, you have many options for learning about philosophy and developing your philosophical abilities. You may find other ways too.

Whatever you do, good luck and have fun!

Author: Theresa Twogood

I must admit that for whatever reason, this week has me feeling as if I am in a ‘funk’. I am not sure if it is all the dopey way people have been acting and/or thinking lately, or if I’m just coming down with something. Either way, and none the less I am in a ‘funk’, therefore, please pardon if I offend, that is not my intention now or ever. Also, please pardon the length of this article; it is required to demonstrate completely what I wish to highlight.

I found it rather interesting this week that all the major media services have begun to report that gasoline prices are raising even higher, each and every day and this may signal a lot of trouble and problems to come. We didn’t really need them to tell us this however, while they continue to report the obvious; you and I can detect and learn of a ‘new’ underlying philosophy hiding under and spreading across the globe along with the increasing of oil prices.

You may not have heard of it, nor had the misfortunate to come into contact with the ‘new philosophy’, so I will attempt to explain it to you. Now I could just blurt it out, however, you would not understand me completely and therefore you would move on to other more interesting, and easier to understand articles to read. Therefore I have broken down this ‘new philosophy’ into how four different groups of people with each of their unique versions or spin of this ‘new philosophy’ are infecting the overall ‘thought of the moment’.

A good portion of adults have begun to notice that they are getting larger and larger in size. When they weight themselves they can plainly see that they are now a member of the over-weight club. This causes a great deal of emotional distress and uncomfortableness along with the discomfort of tight fitting clothes. [Please don’t misunderstand me, not everyone that is overweight has their version of the following ‘new philosophy’. Also, not every overweight person is overweight because of their actions or inaction.] This group’s version of the ‘new philosophy’ goes something like this while in conversion with experts on overweight issues; they say ‘give me some ‘diet’ that allows me to remain in my usual inactive lifestyle, while eating the same if not a bit more of my favorite foods and snacks’. This group’s version is simply, ‘I want a miracle cure now, however, not a real solution that involves any effort and/or moderation and personal responsibility’. Again, not all overweight people believe this, however, the group that do, is growing larger everyday in more than just dress sizes. Just as a bad attitude has the effect of a spreading wildfire, so does this dopey way of thinking.

The next group is College graduates. A large portion, no not all again, has begun to exercise their version of the ‘new philosophy’ and it goes like this. ‘Don’t even think of offering me a job with an average starting wage, don’t expect me to grow in understanding as well as in pay grade with greater knowledge and as I learn the ropes of this new position’! Just pay me like the CEO and if that’s not possible I understand. However, you will then just have to give me the winning numbers for next week’s lottery drawing’! Simply put, ‘I have learned everything there is to know, I am a know-it-all and will not stand to be educated by anyone any further. I will not start out a career and work myself up the ‘corporate ladder’ and pay scale, I will not ‘sacrifice’ any of my nights or weekends while in training because I don’t do training and lastly, just pay me like the top person of this company, and pay me right now’! Again, not all however a rather large percentage does hold to this version of the ‘new philosophy’. This is also the very same group that has learned to dismiss any bad behavior with examples of other-worst bad behavior.

The next group is the non-graduated and other various ‘up and coming’ levels of educated as well as those who drop out before completing various requirements. This group’s version of the ‘new philosophy’ is: ‘let’s come up with the most outlandish, over-the-top, immoral, hurtful, ridiculous activity that we can film with our video camera or phone camera! Then we will upload it to Youtube and we will get rich and famous all at the same time and never have to work another day in our lives’. Simply put, ‘give me money, fame, and even more fortune for my utterly unworthy contribution and reckless behavior under the guise of ‘humor’. After all this is the time of reality shows and instant fame and fortune, and so ‘get out of my way, I want mine and I want it now’!

This group has hit upon one very valid point however. We as a people have learned to forget what a person did to get to the position of fame and fortune they now hold. It’s as if once you get it, by any means possible, the method and means is quickly forgotten and you gain unearned, undeserved respect along with your new found fortune. This has got to stop! We need to hold people to creditability standards once again. Simple fame does not or should not ever equal respect.

The last and the most destructive group is the pseudo-religious camp. This group goes around doing actions that THEY one, say and ADMIT are totally offensive to God. Two, these actions are considered and understood to be a sin in God’s eyes. This group however, instead of having any true contrition and guilt of wrong doing, and instead of taking any action to prevent the re-occurrence of the said action, they boldfacely display their wrong actions until approached by another wishing to assist them to see the ‘error of their ways’. Then this group protests loudly and responds, ’you aren’t suppose to judge me, and just because you have pointed out my fault you are a negative person and even a threat to me and to my way of life’. Simply put, they hold to the misconceived tarradiddle dribble that, ‘God loves me even if I continue to do wrong actions under my control, over and over again even if I am not one bit contrite’. The ‘icing on the cake’ is that they PLAN to do the wrong doing or to continue in the action again and again with no thought of changing or stopping’! They continue to say, ‘God doesn’t punish wrongdoers, He doesn’t wish for anyone in error to come into the light of contrition and put a stop to their wrong doing’. ‘No, He doesn’t detest the action or wrong doing. ‘It is all a simple matter of personal perspective’! What a bunch of slobbering dribble!

Lately, anyone who would point out this group’s version of the ‘new philosophy’ as wrong and an action to resist and stop at once are called a threat, a bad, negative and hateful person. Even some of the new ‘hate crime’ laws could now apply to anyone pointing out the ‘error of this group’s ways’!

This group isn’t made up of just one type or another but rather a wide and varying type of people and behavior. The whole misconceived error that God loves a person no matter whatever they do is the root of the trouble. No, God only loves those who come before Him with complete contrition and repentance with the fore-thought of changing the behavior in question. With full contrition and repentance (which infers change or the ceasing of doing the wrong) God’s is then full of mercy! If one goes around taunting God with their actions and this misconceived error, they will find that they are on the fast track to where they do not want to be and to total separation from God and His people! Separation does not infer any hateful fore-thought or intention to separate. Do not allow this religious version of the ‘new philosophy’ to infect your children; for it will only equal more dissatisfaction and a life of pain and separation. Irregardless of religious denomination, the truth and not the misconceived lie applies to all religions and religious denominations and even to those who live their lives the way they think ‘A God’ would want, outside of any formed church or religious denomination or group! Lastly, do not make the fatal error, or allow another to dismiss your words by quickly claiming, that the above discussion of the truth falls anywhere under the ‘work-righteousness’ umbrella. I am not inferring anyone to ‘work away’ any sin or making oneself more desirable to God by actions or any inaction outside of faith and contrition. No, only with full contrition and repentance of ALL wrong doing are we gathered up and embraced by God.

After examining the four groups and their various versions of the ‘new philosophy’ can you now understand how I found it interesting and disturbing that this was quickly becoming the new ‘normal’. ‘The new philosophy’ says that it is okay to want a change of something, however, do not provide any effort or action to change a situation to a more pleasing disposition.

Now I am sure you are also wondering how all this has any connection the current problem of rising gasoline prices. As I have stated before, the very same ‘new philosophy’ has even crept into the current ‘thought’ over the new gas price war, allow me to explain.

In the four groups detailed, the over all theme was, a want a change, however, I won’t do anything or offer anything to bring about the change. We all want much lower gas prices and we all want it now. However, we don’t want anyone to attempt to correct the problem by creating more oil and in turn more fuel, increasing the supply and driving the prices down in our supply and demand economy. ‘Nope! Don’t drill here, there or anywhere close to my neighborhood. Don’t even think of drilling over there because of some ‘protected’ insect or fish or maybe some other lower level life form resides there. Just lower the gas prices-now’!

When things are as bad as they are now, rightful and conscience people make the choice to do the ‘worst of two evils’. Some lower, yet valuable, life form can not and should not be held to be ‘more valuable’ than our way of life and the greater good of our Country and the good it does for mankind over all!

I want you to understand this ‘new philosophy’ is as dangerous as it is ridiculous. We must understand that our country runs on transportation, i.e. various forms of gasoline and the interrelatedness and/or contingent upon what it does for our economy. Our children could have to learn to do without a lot of fresh produce as well as without as much food period! Why? Because their parents, the store owners, the food suppliers, the food distributors, food growers, the food pickers all need gasoline and/or are affected when our economy uses and provides more or less gasoline!

The most dangerous possibility of the current problem is that our military has the job to protect us and our country. If they don’t have enough gasoline (diesel) they can’t protect us. Planes, tanks, armored vehicles, troop carriers and so on, all need various forms of gasoline. If another country decided to invade the US from the south, our military may not have the resources to protect and to chase back the invaders. Our military may be forced to draw back to ‘a center point’ to re-group resources, and allow a few southern states to go in an attempt to be able to save the bulk of the US! This is a scary possibility.

Now, just as I am no theologian with any formal religious instruction, I have no position of authority with our Government and I say what I do without any insider information from the Government or our military. Anyone who has studied the ways and means of the past two-hundred years of history and military action can infer the problems I highlighted above. It is a real possibility and threat to the overall way we live! This means that it is a threat to our country-the United States of America! It’s not clever rhetoric and magniloquence, it’s a fact. Everything in our supply and demand economy is inter-related and co-dependent upon each other. Any significant change or decrease in one area causes a decrease and change across the board. Something as seemingly indifferent as a large percentage of campers not paying the Federal camping fees or park fees, means a lot less money in one part of the Federal government and it will effect the over all Federal government as well as various local economies!

When one sits and ponders, the effects of our current fuel shortage, irregardless of whether it is a ‘true shortage’ of actual production or simply a shortage due to price and expense, it is very chilling and could be the reason why you and I will be feeling as if we are in a ‘funk’ for quite some time! It truly is scary and nothing to laugh or smile about.

Now, is this dopey ‘new philosophy’ really all that new? Could it be simple old-fashioned laziness with a new coat of paint along with a sense of individual entitlement? The results of the ‘new philosophy’ could be the results of all of us having to learn to do without and to do everything in a very different way, very soon. Remember from past problems and history we have learned that how we as a people respond and how we either take or don’t take action determines how our economy and our way of life will be tomorrow. We are Americans, the proudest people on this planet for a reason. We have created more, while the rest do without more!

Nothing that is worth anything to anyone is ever free or easy, and it doesn’t come without hard work and serious sacrifice. Please recognize the roots of this destructive and counter-productive ‘new philosophy’ and dopey thinking. Wherever it pokes its head, call it what it is and identify it for those who missed it! Please be bold enough to set the record straight. Even if you are singled out as a hateful person, still attempt to set the record straight. Why? Because when we do we are insuring our tomorrow to the way we all want it to continue to be. Then just maybe soon, and without a great deal or much further personal sacrifice, we all will be so very fortunate once again because of smart minds, strong backs and a God who smiles down on us with favor.